Former dancer Princess Bell had to stop working to care for her two children, aged 11 and 9, who have a complex, undiagnosed neurological condition. But a few years ago she decided it was possible for her to pursue a career too and started looking into how she could become a respiratory physiotherapist. She took the first step towards this goal by enrolling on Birkbeck’s Certificate in Higher Education for Life Sciences.  

Princess joined Birkbeck’s Certificate Holders Celebration tea party alongside dozens of her peers, hosted by Master of the College Professor David Latchman, at the University of London’s historic Senate House headquarters.

Now that she’s finished the course, with a distinction, she’s accepted a place at St George’s University to study physiotherapy. 

Princess and her children at the Certificate Holders celebration tea party

“A couple of years ago, I decided it was possible for me to try and have a career as well as caring for my children. I knew I wanted to get into physiotherapy because of my children’s needs, especially my daughter who has a lot of respiratory issues. There were a couple of ways I could have done it, but I chose to do the Certificate at Birkbeck because of the flexibility, and because being able to study in the evening was extremely helpful. My daughter needs a nurse when I am not available, but evening study meant fewer staff were needed because my children were in bed, as opposed to when they’re awake and active. It just made balancing everything a lot easier for me.

“It was also the fact that Birkbeck has a really good reputation. When I went to St George’s for an Open Day, I said to the Head of Admissions for Physiotherapy that I was looking at the Certificate at Birkbeck. She said that any students they’ve ever got from Birkbeck have always been really good and achieved really well, so that cemented that Birkbeck was the ideal place to start off my retraining.

“Juggling my studies with looking after my children was very difficult in honesty, especially as the course had a lot of independent study. I could only get support from social care for the hours where I was physically out of the house at lectures, so when I had to study in the house, I still had to care for my children at the same time.

“However, I really enjoyed learning and getting to use my brain again, and my lecturers were really supportive. When I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to do it, they were very encouraging and understanding of my situation. One of my lecturers, Dr Gwen Nneji, even Skyped me to do some tutoring for the sessions that I missed when I had to care for my children. She gave me extra guidance in the areas that I needed to look at to be able to catch up, so I could still manage to complete the course.

“I was so relieved when I got my results and realised that I actually did well. Even though I’m going on to the next step and I haven’t finished my training yet, it gave me a huge sense of achievement: ‘I got through it, I managed to do it!’

“My plan now is to go into respiratory physiotherapy within paediatrics, once I qualify. That’s going to be a few years off, but I have a place at St George’s University starting next year. I have to do rotations first which includes adult and paediatrics, before I get to specialise.”